


The Buck Stops Here

by thealphagate_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Drama, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-27
Updated: 2006-03-27
Packaged: 2019-02-02 18:43:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12732129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thealphagate_archivist/pseuds/thealphagate_archivist
Summary: The buck stops at General Jack O'Neill when he lets that team go to Atlantis.





	The Buck Stops Here

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the archivists: this story was originally archived at [The Alpha Gate](https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Alpha_Gate), a Stargate SG-1 archive, which began migration to the AO3 in 2017 when its hosting software, eFiction, was no longer receiving support. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. We e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are this creator and it hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Alpha Gate collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/thealphagate).

"It isn't too late, Jack..."

"No."

"But I could..."

"No."

General Jack O'Neill ignored the angry burning blue eyes of his lead archeologist, leaning forward after the last man had gone and said into the mike, "Send my gift through to 'em, then shut her down."

The Champaign bottle floated out of sight, then the blue puddle disintegrated into silence. The silence that fills an empty room after the disappearance of forty important human beings to what could be their deaths, and probably was a lifetime of exile from their home world.

Without looking at the still pissed Daniel, Jack turned and bounded up the spiral stairs to his new office, closing the door after him. The closed door was a message to his subordinates that the Commanding Officer did not want to be disturbed.

Needless to say, Daniel ignored the message. But of course, he had never acted like a subordinate to Jack, and never would.

The door opened and the still annoyed archeologist came in. "Jack..."

"Daniel, a closed door on a General's office means he doesn't want to be disturbed."

The sharp comment surprised Daniel, breaking through his anger and causing him to stare at his friend in shock as he closed the door and approached the General's desk. Jack had always had time for Daniel before. He took in the General's haunted-looking brown eyes, the paleness of his usually tanned face.

"Jack?" The worry in his tone was unmistakable to O'Neill.

"What do you want me to say, Daniel?" Jack said in a tired voice. "I know how much it means to you to have gone with them. What it would have meant to *them*, as well."

"Then *why* Jack? I could have done the same thing for them as I did for you, Kawalski and Ferretti."

"You don't know that. Just like you didn't know it then."

"But at least they would have had a better chance..."

The slap of Jack's hand on the desk interrupted Daniel's harangue. He watched as O'Neill stood up jerkily, came around the corner of the desk, and moved into his space, brown eyes blazing.

"Don't you think I know that? Don't you think that I counted every single one of those people I sent through, knowing it was probably to their deaths or worse? And don't you think I'm going to have every single one of their faces in my mind for the rest of my fricking life, Daniel? I got enough faces in here already..." Jack poked his silvered head hard. "...With Charlie at the very top of the pile of bloody faces. Do you think it is going to be easy to live with that? Do you? Knowing that if I had let you go they might have had a better chance to come home sometime? That Weir knew that, but had to follow my orders in not letting you go?" 

Gently, Daniel said, "I just want to know why you didn't."

Jack turned toward his vanity wall, seeming as though he was looking right at a picture of a much younger Jack O'Neill shaking hands with the then Air Force Chief of Staff. 

/Even back then he was a hero./ Thought Daniel, noting that the younger Jack had a chest full of medals even early on. /Now, he's the one who sends the heroes out to fight while he stays home waiting to see who will return./

After staring at the picture for a few minutes in silence, Jack finally answered his archeologist's question in a quiet voice, still facing away from him.

"You going might have let them get home, but it might not, either. I couldn't take the chance that you would leave me and never come back. I can't lose you again."

This time it was Daniel who moved into Jack's personal space, placing his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"You won't lose me, Jack." He said softly.

O'Neill turned to face the man he had loved secretly for years. "I need you, Daniel. I can't go through what I did last year again. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to let you go, 'cause I know how much you wanted to go to Atlantis."

"I didn't want to go that bad, Jack." Daniel practically whispered back, his face only inches from Jack's. "You know me. If I had wanted to go that badly, I would have gone with or without your permission. I didn't want to leave you, either."

Jack's face lit up in a mercurial change of mood with a big smile at the archeologist's confession. "You didn't? Sweet!"

Daniel, who had read the love in Jack's dark eyes during his confession, smiled and leaned forward to brush his lips across his friend's. "How can you think I would leave you here, your head twice the size it normally is from being a general now, driving everyone crazy? I'm here and ready to prick your balloon ego anytime it's needed."

Jack licked his just-kissed lips, tasting Daniel on them. "Prick my balloon? You're a linguist, for crying out loud! Couldn't you come up with a better line than that one, Danny?"

"Did it work?"

"Yeahsureyabetcha! Just let me clear up here, and you can take me home to look at your artifacts."

"Your artifacts? That's worse than the balloon comment!"

Jack leaned forward and kissed his soon-to-be lover to shut him up. It worked.

The End


End file.
